Search Results

Roomie – that’s Monte Irvin. He and I room together when the ball club’s on the road. Many’s the time I’ve hollered for him to get me out of what I’m in. Like the time we were posing for the team picture and a guy came up to me and said “Willie, I’m Jumble from […]

Ernie Banks was the first black manager, if only for a day. Al Orth threw two complete games in one afternoon. These findings and more from our staff archeologist.   SOME HEAVY HITTING IN FIRST PRO LEAGUE During the five years that baseball’s first professional league the National Association of Professional Baseball Players operated, there […]

In the 1970s, the very time when players and umpires gained wealth and power, baseball’s field managers’ status declined as they became wretched scapegoats to be sacrificed to the bloodlust of victory-starved fans. True, sacking the manager was a time-honored ploy; whenever rumblings of fan discontent erupted, a manager was bumped off as virgins in […]

In my years as a traveling baseball writer, namely 1946 through 1958, I believe I bridged the gap between the yesteryear of hero worship and the modern adversary era. When I came along, writers were just beginning to find warts on athletes’ faces. Now? Heck, they’re apt to see nothing but. Somewhere, of course, there […]

“Blue heaven on earth” – Tommy Lasorda on Dodger Stadium   Dodger Stadium is the third oldest ballpark in major-league baseball. Only Fenway Park and Wrigley Field have been hosting games longer than the House That Walter O’Malley Built. The iconic venue that sits atop a hill just north of downtown Los Angeles, with views of […]

The Saint John Royals, Maritime Black Champions 1920. (New Brunswick Museum)   Although the origins of Black baseball in the Maritimes remain obscure, it is likely that the game was being played informally as early as the 1870s. Operating independently, but often in association with the African Baptist and Episcopal churches, black teams like the […]

WORLD WAR II decimated minor league baseball. Then, like the legendary phoenix rising from the ashes, the 1945 low of 12 leagues soared to an impressive 52 leagues in 1947. They ranged from Triple-A to Class D and covered the length and breadth of the United States plus towns in Canada and Mexico. Old leagues […]

In 1946, all eyes were on the Montreal Royals and Jackie Robinson as he was readying to break baseball’s color line. But 24 years earlier, without any publicity, an African American ballplayer had already played six games for the Montreal team in the Class B Eastern Canada League. Charlie Culver’s presence didn’t ruffle many feathers […]

  The major league baseball clubs of Cleveland and Cincinnati have much in common. They call the same state home. Both have established a proud tradition that dates back to the nineteenth century, and have enjoyed success and endured failure. They are mid-market teams who can afford to compete when managing resources wisely, but can’t […]

Click here to read Part I of this article on Roberto Clemente’s Puerto Rico winter league career. Roberto Clemente with San Juan in 1959. (Courtesy of Thomas Van Hyning.)   In August 1959, Roberto Clemente was traded from Caguas of the Puerto Rico Winter League to San Juan, with Canenita Allen and José “Palillo” Santiago […]